Alumnus Elliott Moreton, now of UNC Chapel Hill, and Joe Pater have written a pair of papers launching what they call "structurally biased phonology". A further UMass connection is that they cite Professor Emeritus Emmon Bach as one of the original progenitors of this approach to phonological theory. From Pater and Moreton (to appear):

"Structurally biased phonology is a program of research that aims to understand the role of structural complexity in phonological learning and typology...Although a form of structurally biased phonology was originally proposed in Bach and Harms (1972), it seems not to have been subsequently much pursued. We seek to better understand: (1) what effects structure has on learning and typology, (2) whether and how the learning effects are causally connected with the typological ones, (3) what properties a learner must have to account for them, and (4) whether and how these effects are connected to other domains in and out of linguistics."

Pater, Joe and Elliott Moreton. To appear. Structurally biased phonology: Complexity in learning and typology. In a special issue of the EFL Journal on phonology, edited by K.G. Vijayakrishnan (The Journal of the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad). http://blogs.umass.edu/pater/files/2012/05/pater-moreton-2012.pdf

Brian Smith will be going to the 20th annual meeting of the Manchester Phonology Meeting to present "Ineffability and UR constraints in Optimality Theory". He will be joined by several UMass alums: Jill Beckman, Elliott Moreton and Jen Smith.